The Perfect Opportunity
by FlufferDoodlez
Summary: Suddenly losing her memory in an unfortunate mishap, Mara walks around not knowing the life she knew before. Instead of encouraging her to recall past memories, trust has been broken when a few house members try to take advantage of her. But will anyone tell her the truth?
1. Chapter 1

**I'm proud to say, this is my first FanFic. ^-^ The story line is pretty awkward, I think- I mean, who stays up two days straight studying for finals? But just go with it. :P I also felt like I rushed the beginning a bit, what do you guys think?**

**Another thing is that I'm terrible at writing in third person, so... forgive me? Anyway, on with the story. Enjoy!**

Throwing her books to the ground, Mara decided a few minutes of rest wouldn't affect her chemistry test scores. She leaned back to glance at the phone that has been untouched for days. Pieces of cobwebs hung off the side, flowing with the air conditioner. Mara sighed, her head crashing down on her pillow that molded a shape perfect for her head.

Just when Mara thought she was oblivious to the outside world, a harmonious chime woke her from the half-awake, half-asleep state she was experiencing. A hollow groan emanated from her body; the warm welcome of her comforter made it hard to bestir. Curiosity getting the best of her, she stretched her arm over to the wooden side table beside her grabbing the plastic phone upon contact clearing the cobweb. The bright light that came next blinded her causing Mara to squint at the sight until she adjusted to it. Mara read the words on her screen aloud,

_NEW TXT MSG: Poppy_

Though she had become great friends with Poppy, she couldn't help feel a little surprised by her text. Continuing, Mara pressed the "OK" button to reveal the text.

_emergency study session for algebra? school library?_

Mara sighed, already have had been studying plenty for her algebra test the day before, but could never deny a friend in need. Sometimes she felt her friends took her smarts for granted, but was fearful to stand up to anyone. And since when was Poppy worried about algebra? Little did Mara know, or remember, Poppy's last day of finals was not algebra- but biology.

Sloppily, she started responding over text with her eyes closed, and due to her sleepiness, ended up resembling poor orthography, or something of a 2-year-olds spelling. She savored her last moment in bed, promising to never hold an all-night study session for two consecutive days again. Kicking off her covers, she clumsily got out of bed and wobbled over to the door. Even though she fumbled with the doorknob for a good five minutes, nevertheless she succeeded. Passing Nina's and Amber's room, she bumped into Trudy, almost losing her footing in the process, causing a cascade of fresh clothing to rain down on her. Trudy, at the time, was too preoccupied with talking to maintenance to check out the broken faucet at the house to see Mara, silent as a cat, to even receive warning. Mara was zoned off, almost sleep walking.

"Oh," Trudy gasped, stumbling backwards from the crash, "Mara, sweetie. What are you doing up this early?" Mara looked up at Trudy, seeing double. She rubbed her eyes a couple times and kept at it, hoping her focus would unveil the original. Without a response, Trudy continued. "Mara, you don't look all right. Maybe you should go back to bed for a few hours." Trudy's intentions were good at heart, but guilt swept over her when she was unhelpful. Mara hadn't even slept the night before.

"I'm fine," she spoke at last, her speech sounding mushed together and slurred as she pushed Trudy to the side.

One foot in front of the other, slowly she pushed her body forward towards the staircase; feet dragged behind. A forced concentration on sleeping pushed her eyes closed just as she stepped onto a lower stair. Missing the step by a mere fraction, she slipped down hitting multiple stairs along the way. Her eyes opened for a split second to reach out for the railing, but missed. Life flashing before her eyes, the limp body continued to fall ferociously, her head colliding with the hand rail at the bottom with a loud _bang!_ Suddenly, her head was filled with the darkest shade of black. Nothing entering her mind, no dreams forming, just silence.

Throwing down the laundry she was collecting, Trudy pounced down the stairwell to aid Mara after overhearing the incident.

"Mara!" she screeched, rapidly strolling down to her side. "Oh, dear... Victor," she shouted, not having the guts or knowledge to take care of this herself, "Victor!"

Trudy noticed Mara's arm, awkwardly positioned in a way that couldn't be too comfortable. When Trudy slowly lifted her arm, Mara subconciously let out a low moan clearly expressing her pain. It was fractured, no doubt about it.

During the commotion, Patricia, who volunteered to stay home in case she refused, ran down in the midst of brushing her teeth, leaving a trail of toothpaste behind. Once she spied Mara at the bottom of the staircase, Trudy looked up at her with a worried expression. Running, she swung open Victor's door, who hadn't heard Trudy's pleads for help, and grasped him by the wrist dragging him along.

As he tried to resist, he spoke words that weren't new to her. "What is the meaning of this, Williamson?" he boomed.

"Just follow," she tugged his wrist harder, "me!"

He sensed her voice, a tone he's never heard her speak with before the Joy problem, and cooperately followed her. As he was lead down the staircase, he saw Mara, a delicate flower, broken. Eyes popped out of his head, for a second, he feared she was dead, until Trudy shook her head. As much as he despised the little pests that wondered aimlessly around his house, he never intended for any of them to get injured. He sighed in relief, moving closer to the body that lay sprawled on the floor.

"She might be more comfortable if we moved her to a sofa, perhaps? While you do that, I'm going to phone the paramedics," Trudy offered some motherly advice.

As Trudy left to get the paramedics, Victor tried shooing Patricia off to her room.

"I'm not leaving my friend!" she pouted, brushing Mara's tangly hair away from her face.

Huffing, Victor picked up Mara gently with his sturdy hands, and brought her to the living room sofa. Instead of moving back and forth throughout the night, she remained like a rock.

Patricia retrieved her phone from her room, while Trudy carefully watched over her body, and dialed Amber. Two... three... four rings and she answered.

"Patricia," she whispered, "why are you calling me? You should be here with Mara partying it up!"

As Patricia took the time to explain in exact detail what happened, Amber let out a cry. "No! I can't believe this, on her birthday, too! Knocked out cold?"

"Who's knocked out cold?" Alfie asked as Amber almost completely shouted it.

"Mara. Now shush, Alfred," she scolded. "We'll be there soon."

And with that, she hung up, leaving Patricia behind as a nervous wreck. Waddling back down the stairs to greet Mara, who at anytime should be waking up, froze when she saw the paramedics huddled around her. The injury wasn't severe enough for the stretcher, but they tightly bandaged her arm and added a cast. A sling was also added for extra protection if necessary. Her sensitive skin made it easily bruise, patches of discoloration throughout her body were tinted in shades of black and blue on almost every visible body part. Every touch caused discomfort and pain, which sent guilt through Patricia's veins. If she hadn't approved the party - and if she had seen the condition Mara was in before she left their room - she may have still been okay. If only she had done a lot of things...

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I forgot to do the disclaimer last time, but screw it... we all know I don't own House of Anubis. Enjoy!**

With the paramedics gone, the Anubis residents, who arrived shortly after, started pinning up all the decorations from the library into the common room. Purple and blue balloons tied to the chairs, streamers running across the ceiling and a chocolate cake with all works.

Jerome sat beside the couch where Mara lay, waiting for her for to awaken so he could alert the others. He took a strip of her midnight black hair and rubbed it between his fingers. Her curly hair bouncing right back to it's original state, it's perfectness reflecting the beauty of her face. Only Jerome would think Mara, even with her multicolored skin and disheveled look, was completely gorgeous. A longing look grew on his face as he fantasized about her. Sneaking out past curfew just to hold her in his arms, kissing her senseless in front of the whole world. He just needed her feelings to be mutual.

Amber saw Jerome - the look, the actions - and a wide grin began to form on her face. This was the perfect opportunity for her to interfere and matchmake! Something Amber Millington was best at, Fabina being proof of her magic.

Her brown irises drifted to the couple, admiring her work that was flirtaciously throwing handfulls of confetti at each other. Nina's brunette hair was now a colorful disaster and Fabian could easily be mistaken for a scarecrow, with all of the rainbow paper that poured out of his red and white plaid shirt and navy blue jeans. Nina jogged around the kitchen table, giggling exceedingly loud, trying to avoid Fabian from getting anymore of the paper anywhere on her. Why was she playing cat and mouse when she could put her skills to work? She abruptly stopped and turned around, ready to block the attack with her arms, but was shocked when a shower of whipped cream appeared out of the blue landing across the center of her body in a jagged line. Nina, now covered in the fluffy, white substance, threw herself onto Fabian, pinning his scrawny body to the ground. Both of them were messily covered in whipped cream and confetti, but that didn't stop them from lip-locking on the wooden floor.

Amber let out a silent "aw" as she marvelled at the two. Her eyes trailed to Alfie, her ex-boyfriend, who she undeniably had some feelings left for. He really could make a girl happy when he wasn't embarassing Amber with his child-like ways. She realized that she kept trying to make Alfie this perfect guy to match her unbelievably high-standards, when she should accept the fact that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He treated her like a princess, which was all she really needed. Right? Seconds later, she came back to her senses, realizing she had been staring at Alfie for quite sometime, though luckily no one had noticed as they were too busy decorating and chatting with others.

"Alfie," Amber started, grabbing Alfie's attention from sneaking some frosting off the cake. "How about you and I give Amfie another go?"

The room that was once filled with life fell dead silent as they all turned to Alfie. All of the partygoers knew that he and Amber had a complicated relationship. Alfie had attempted to break it off with Amber multiple times, but became unsuccessful due to her stubborn attitude. Luckily, Amber had broken up with him the following week.

Alfie had suddenly became very interested the buttons on his shirt, fiddling with them as he weighed his options. He knew it wasn't a safe game he was playing, thinking about his answer, but he didn't know if he was ready to begin another relationship with Ms. High Maintenance.

As he reached a decision, he tried to put his answer in the best way possible. "I don't think... I don't... t-this isn't a good time for me," he stuttered, looking away from the girl who was probably staring daggers in his direction.

Everyone focused on Amber, who was turning red as a tomato. The intensity of the moment made it feel like hours for Alfie before she finally got up and left the room quietly, trying her best not to throw a temper tantrum in front of the others. Seconds later, the upstairs door was slammed shut and a distinct scream erupted from her bedroom.

"Ouch, bad move, dude," Eddie sympathsized, his bushy blonde hair bouncing with his head.

He pulled out a chair at the dining room table to and plopped down in it, resting his head in his hands. "You try dating her," he muttered. "She treats me like a puppet. It's always 'Alfie, don't do this' or 'Alfie, don't wear that. Blah, blah, blah, nag, nag, nag. I want her to prove to me she's changed," he sighed, turning to Nina who was looking up at Alfie from the floor, "and I don't want you dropping her hints about this. Capisci?"

Nina nodded. "I agree," she added, hesitantly.

"Isn't Alfie a tree full of sap today?" Patricia snorted, escalating the ladder after adding the finishing touches to the wall.

"Shut up," he muttered, the wall that held emotions bulldozed. Alfie, much like Jerome, hated to appear weak to the naked eye. However, he didn't have the background story or the strength to keep that brick wall up at all times.

**Review!(:**


	3. Chapter 3

**Happy New Years!(:**

That night, all of the Anubis kids were tucked away into their beds except Mara. After much arguing, Victor finally got the children to agree that she stay on the couch. But that didn't stop Jerome from worrying; let's face it, nothing would. He lay awake in his bed, arms folded behind his head, staring straight up at the ceiling. A million things were going through his head. The doctors told them she would be fine, but what if she'd stay unconscience for so long that she just couldn't stay alive? And what if something went wrong. . . what if the situation the doctors thought was minor, was actually quite major? If she had permenant brain damage, if it was so traumatic that she took on a whole new outlook on life, what was to happen frightened Jerome. He just wished she'd wake up.

"I can't do this," he murmurred, bolting up, deciding he would never get to bed if he didn't at least see Mara once more.

He threw his blue covers to the ground before stepping out of his bed. He snuck past his best friend. He had admired the fact that he had him in his life. Alfie had stayed up with Jerome almost half of the night to take his mind off of everything that was happening. Though he wasn't there for him all the time, he was there when he most needed it. Jerome, a slight smile lying on his lips, turned around, closing the door behind him.

As he exited his room, he peeked around the corner to see Mara still asleep on the couch. He tip-toed towards her to get a better look. Her raven hair was still ratted and looked as if she'd just been in the middle of a tornado, her eyes had those dark black circles under them, and her bruises were just as dark at night. He cringed at the sight. He whisked the hair blocking her face out of it. Kneeling down on his knees, he entwined his fingers with hers, squeezing her hand.

Mara mumbled something incoherent. His smile did not falter as he kissed her forehead; he stood up and his hand slid out of Mara's grasp. However, at the last second, Mara's grip on his hand tightened, and she snuggled it into her chest. He tried tugging for a little while before giving up, sighing. He knelt back down, resting his head against her stomach.

Squeezing her hand back, he slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

"Aw," Amber whispered, watching Jerome and Mara adoringly from a chair directly beside the couch. She was resting her chin upon her hand, her pearly white teeth shining bright.

Just then, Nina and Patricia burst into the dining room laughing. "American's are so stupid!"

"Hey," Nina punched her friends arm playfully, grabbing the back of her regular dining chair.

Patricia sighed, entering the kitchen, heading directly for the dry cereal. "I'm sorry, but Eddie's ruined it for the entire American population."

Before Nina could reply, Amber turned around sharply, hissing at her friends, "Will you guys be quiet?" Both of the girls looked at Amber. Then each other. Then back at Amber. She signalled towards the couch with her finger. Nina curiously moved towards the couch.

"Oh," she said when she saw the two, "I didn't know they were dating."

"Who's dating who?" Patricia called from the kitchen, reaching for the milk.

Amber shook her head, "They're not, Mara would've told me." She looked back at the two, sighing, "But don't they make an _adorable _couple?"

"Me and Patricia?" Eddie inquired, entering the kitchen. He took his hands and wrapped them around Patricia's waist, planting a kiss on her cheek. "You know, that's what I've tried telling her, but this woman is relentless."

"Oh. I think I've forgotten a spoon," she lied, purposely elbowing Eddie's stomach in the process.

"Ouch," he yelped, rubbing his stomach, "fiesty as well as anything else." He gave her a little wink. Eddie followed Patricia as she exited the kitchen, spying Jerome and Mara on the couch. Jerome had his eyes shut as he leaned back against Mara's stomach, arms folded across his chest. Mara had her arms covering her face.

Alfie marched into the living room with tired eyes, "Has anybody seen Jerome? I woke up this morning and he- whoa." He soon spotted Jerome and mumbled a quick 'nice' before Mara started tossing and turning from side to side.

Mara let out a loud groan, stretching her arms above her head and letting them fall to her side. She rubbed her eyes a little before she finally peeked them open slightly, letting the light into her eyes. She immediately closed them, feeling blinded, but soon opened them again. People soon came into view. First blurry, then clear in a matter of seconds. Her muddy brown eyes darted from person to person, carefully inspecting each one. None of them seemed the slightest bit familiar. Her environment seemed even less familiar. The colours, the scent, even that normal home-y feel was missing. Whatever home was supposed to be, anyway.

Mara, still lying down, croaked with a weak voice, "Where am I?"

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